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The
LangaList
Standard Edition
2002-02-04
A Free Email Newsletter from
Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware,
Software, and Time Online
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1) WPA Lockout Workarounds
By now, you probably know that if you use any form of
"XP" software--- Windows XP, Office XP, Word 2002, Excel 2002, FrontPage 2002,
etc.--- you can't avoid Windows Product Activation (WPA): It's a form of
mandatory product registration that requires you to communicate with Microsoft
by web or phone to receive a unique 50-digit product identifier that locks your
software to the specific hardware setup it's installed on.
We've already covered WPA in some depth, but there's one additional important
item left to cover: What to do if WPA's worst-case scenario comes true for you
and you find yourself totally locked out of your PC. In the last columns,
we've discussed how this can happen (see "The Giant
Paperweight"
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020117S0002 ; "Windows XP's
'Product Activation A Privacy Risk?"
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010816S0015 ; and "1000 Posts
Later A WPA Update"
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010831S0009 ); now it's time to
discuss remedies and workarounds that can help you recover from an unexpected
lockout.
And make no mistake: If WPA is triggered for any
reason--- any reason at all--- and you are unable or unwilling to complete the
activation process, then you'll at least be
unable to use your software. And in the worst case (with the Windows XP
operating system) it's possible that you can end up totally locked out of your
PC. (See
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020117S0002 )
All XP software contains the WPA subsystem--- even "preactivated" OEM-installed
or site-licensed versions--- so everyone using XP should be prepared to recover
from an unexpected WPA lockout. Because lockouts in the Windows XP operating
system are potentially the worst, we'll focus our attention there.
The good news is that there *are* workarounds--- ways you can access your data if WPA tries to lock you out. But there are many variables--- XP with and without NTFS; NTFS with and without file encryption; NTFS with and without file
compression; etc.--- so a full explanation would be way too long for this email
newsletter.
So I've made WPA lockout workarounds the topic of the
new column, live now at InformationWeek.Com:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020131S0005 . In it, we'll
go over the essential, "must-know" information about WPA lockouts, and then
introduce you to several techniques and free tools you can use to help regain
access to your WPA-locked data.
With luck, you'll never need to use a lockout
workaround; but if you ever do need it, this information could save you untold
hassle. I think it's well worth checking out and filing away--- just in case!
Please come check out the article at
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020131S0005 , and then join
in the discussion: Does the existence of workarounds for lockouts make WPA any
more palatable for you? Do you know of other tools that can help dig data out of
NTFS disks and partitions, with and without compression and encryption? What are
your final thoughts on WPA? Join in at
http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa .
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2) Semi-Spyware
A reader followed our recent spyware/scumware
discussions and checked his own PC. What he found alarmed him--- and the
answer to his problem may be useful to you in checking out *any* potential spyware (not just
this particular software):
Fred, I discovered Aqueduct.dll in my Family Tree Maker program. A search found aqueduct.dll in my FTW folder, aqueduct.txt on my C:\, and default@aqueduct[1].txt.in my cookie folder. Opening the .txt file it told me what they were doing [gathering info] and they seemed very proud of it. Also it had my computer number and my name among other info. I tried deleting the .dll file but the program wouldn't work so had to restore the file. They have a website www.aqueduct.com . Was wondering if this is common with all large programs? Thanks, Dick
This is where a tool like Google is great: If you do a
search for ANY suspected spyware through Google's UseNet archives (under
Google's
"Groups" tab), you can track down suspected spyware in a flash.
And sometimes, the answers are reassuring. For example,
searching Google/Groups for "aqueduct.dll" (http://groups.google.com/groups?q=aqueduct%2Edll&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search)
turns up several references, one of which leads to a complete explanation at
http://genealogy.custhelp.com .
Turns out Aquaduct.DLL was a data-logger used during the
beta phase of the software testing, and was accidentally left in some early builds
of the released software: It was put in so the software developers could see
what was happening on beta testers' PCs, and was never intended to make it out
to the systems of commercial users. The company is offering an inert replacement
DLL for anyone who wants it. So this one's probably a false alarm, and in any case,
easily remedied.
But this approach--- checking out suspicious stuff on
your system, and using a Google/Groups search to see what others have found---
can let you get to the bottom of all kinds of spyware and other problems.
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3) Recovering Forgotten Passwords
Fred, I subscribe to your list and enjoy it. I have several users I support that have forgotten their local admin
passwords. Do you know of a tool to retrieve the local admin password for
Windows 2000 Professional? Thanks in advance,
Mark Thomas
Sure, Mark; there are several ways to do that, although WinNT/2K/XP makes it
hard.
In contrast, in Win98, it may be an annoyance to forget a Windows system
logon password, but it's
also usually easy to remedy: Just delete the *.PWL file in the Windows directory, and
all the passwords go away. They don't do much anyway--- you usually can just hit
Escape at a Win98 logon prompt and blow right past the password screen. To
say the least, Win98
isn't very secure.
But NT/Win2K/XP are more secure, and sometimes extremely so (depending
on how they're set up). The logon passwords in these OSes are real; and they can
be very difficult to circumvent.
But it can be done, as is explained in some depth here:
http://www.ntsecurity.net/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=9527
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4) Making "Smart Tags" Stupid
Your latest issue includes a comment on Microsoft's Smart Tags (
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-01-31.htm#3 )...
For those of you who have web pages to maintain, including personal web
pages, you can disable Smart Tags for your site by inserting the following line
between <head> and </head> in the html:
<META NAME="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE">
You may recall that a few years ago we saw something similar in the Third
Voice issue... Jeremy Paul Bowers at the time was one of a small group of people
who developed and updated scripts to foil the Third Voice invasion. ---
David J. Baxter
Thanks, David!
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5) Free "Encrypted File Transfer
Protocol"
...This is a great program, read free!!!!,
for anyone who wants to send encrypted information, (encrypted file transfer
protocol). The web site is - http://www.eftp.org .
--- Art Claus
Thanks, Art. The newsgroup chatter suggests the
program many not be fully ready for prime time, but it looks interesting: It uses
highly secure 448-bit BlowFish encryption to scramble data passing between two
PCs using EFTP. Although this'd be extreme overkill for anything I'm ever
likely to send someone--- I don't have anything all that sensitive going
on, and I bet you don't, either--- it's good to know that secure means are
readily available.
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6) They Just Keep Coming And Coming and Coming...
Well over 1,700 of your fellow readers have
"Loaded the Code." Please click over to
http://www.langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join them! (If you've
already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on
the Langa.Com web site, please see
http://www.langa.com/link.txt )
Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some
professional, some very personal:
View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm
Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm
SuperForums
http://www.geocities.com/kevinw000/browser.html
Doc Wiz ("solve computer problems")
http://docwizusa.homestead.com/
Ebay Fan
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/hall3@maqs.net/
Steve Neshan
http://sneshan.www2.50megs.com/steve021601.html
Robert Taylor
http://www.robert-c-taylor.com/
3rd Bridge Company
http://www.3rdbridge.org/
Saws 'N Dust
http://sawsndust.com/
The USS Lindenwald Veterans Association
http://www.usslindenwald.com/
3388 (South Africa)
http://www.3388.co.za/
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7) Almost 500 Free
Downloads From Microsoft
You may find this link useful:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.asp Click on find (at the bottom
of the page) for all 492 Microsoft downloads. Regards, Tony Freitas
Thanks, Tony. We've discussed that link several times before, but the last
time was about a year ago. Some of the downloads have changed--- and we have
many new readers since then too, who may not have seen the previous mention.
8-)
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8) New Month, New Chances...
It's a new month, and right now your chances are the
best they'll ever be!
To have a shot at winning a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item
at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys, and
more--- just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your
friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new
subscriber; and you just may win a mini-shopping spree! (Full details also
available via this link):
http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2
The more times you make a recommendation, the greater
your chances are of winning!
Or, if you'd like to try to win $10,000 (really!),
try this link (full details also available here):
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182
Either way, thank you, and good luck!
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9) Boneheaded Blockers
Hi Fred, I was reading the 1/31 issue and decided to check out LavaSoft's stuff. When I clicked on the main link or any of the alternatives you offered, I got a strange response from my firewall. First, a little history. We have a Watchguard Firebox II firewall, which was set up by me back when I was managing the system (a different long story). There was evidence some people were visiting porn sites at work, so I was directed to look into blocking them. The Firebox offers WebBlocker service, which will filter URL requests against lists of known "offending" sites, on any number of criteria in addition to p o r n-related (violence, d r u g s, w h i t e s u p r e m a c y, search engines (!), etc.). I enabled only "l e w d, n u d e or gross depictions" to be blocked. So back to today's story. WebBlocker didn't like any of the LavaSoft URLs, and wouldn't let me anywhere near them. Makes you wonder if some Internet commercial interests are in bed with some Internet regulating interests, and the opportunity to keep people *away* from public interest sites like LavaSoft is being abused. Or is this just healthy paranoia on my part?
--- Scott Taylor
Most content filters are very, very dumb. If I
mention tools to guard against p o r n in this newsletter, many blockers will prevent delivery
of the newsletter because it contains the word p o r n. If I talk about how to f o r m a t your
drive, blockers will intercept the newsletter, thinking it contains a hidden f o r m
a t command. Duh!
That's why I sometimes add spaces inside sensitive words
(like p o r n), to try
to foil the blockers. (It probably annoys our German readers, as spaced-out
lettering like that is a traditional German alternative for emphasized or
italicized type.... But I'm not doing it for emphasis--- only to dodge
too-literal content filters.)
My guess is the adaware site probably references some spyware that comes from
p o r n sites, or something similar, and your blocker is mindlessly assuming the whole site is
evil.
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10) Just For Grins
A colleague--- who shall remain nameless--- sent
along this hoax mail:
I'm not sure what versions this works with, but it does it in Word 2000 on
the PC.
Forwarded to me by a friend, as are all such things
1 OPEN A WORD DOCUMENT
2 TYPE =rand(200,99)
3 PRESS ENTER AND WAIT 3 SECONDS
MICROSOFT WILL REWARD ANYONE WHO CAN EXPLAIN IT
DON'T FORGET 2 SPACES BEFORE THE = SIGN
Ahem. It's taken on urban legend status, but it's actually a documented function
used to create boilerplate documents with dummy text--- useful for testing
formatting options, fonts, and such. Change the variables, and you change the
length of the generated dummy text. For example, the command above creates 200 paragraphs,
each with 99 sentences.
In English, the dummy sentence is "The quick brown
fox jumps over the lazy dog." The French version says (in French) "Serve this
gentleman a beer and some kiwis." Spanish yields "The quick Hindu bat ate happy
golden thistle and kiwi" or "The stork played the saxophone behind the bale of
straw." These strange sentences contain all the letters of the alphabet (in
their native language), and so serve well for creating dummy text. (See
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-04-19.htm#10 )
Microsoft will not "reward" you for figuring this
out; In fact, it's already fully explained in the Knowledgebase.
http://support.microsoft.com/?ID=KB;;Q157373
8-)
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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:
- "GoogleWhacking"
- More Hardware Snooping--- Without Opening Your PC's Case
- Free VBS Defrag
Helper
Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten
items above, plus about 30% more content including: A bizarre but amusing new
competitive online sport; many more reader recommendations for finding out
exactly what's inside any PC without having to open the case; and a free script
to automate defrags on some systems with multiple drives or partitions.
The Plus! Edition costs only pocket change--- about
13 cents per issue! Info:
http://www.langa.com/plus.htm
For just a dollar a month; how can you go wrong? 8-)
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See you next issue!
Best,
Fred
(fred@langa.com)
Please
recommend
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(The HTML version of each issue normally is available by 9AM EST [UT-5] of the
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